It doesn't mean that abortion and file sharing are connected in any other way.
Whether you believe the murder of the child is justified is a separate question. But even if you believe copyright infringement is wrong someone doing it will not stop the original creator from have access to their [original] copy.
Abortion is not murder because the law says so. Laws and beliefs are two different things. Murder and abortion (except the cirscumstances in which it's permitted) are two legal concepts. There are also "popular" meanings, but the ones that matters if you want to do something about a behaviour are the legal meanings. You can't sue people because of your beliefs.
Wrong and right are "moral" or "ethical" concepts, so different persons have different notions of right and wrong. But there is only one law (in each country, at a given moment).
Natural law is a dead idea. Of course moral concepts are often the motivation for people to try to crate and change laws. But only when the ideas take the form of law, they become a common ground.
BTW, have abortion and murder the same punishment in the USA? I mean illegal abortion. Even performed against the woman's will. I can assure you that it's not the case in many other countries.
abortion at 8 months 29 days is undoubtedly murder. abortion at 8 months 28 days is undoubtedly murder. Now work backwards, when is it no longer murder?
If a barman sells tobacco to someone who's just turned 16 it's legal. Why wasn't it legal yesterday? Laws need this kind of hard limits. Abortion is legal in many countries within certain weeks of conception. Abortion is illegal (but not murder!!) simply before birth. Penalties are different, that's the law.
I'm very happy to have laws, even if I don't like all of them, because they're way better than someone's sense of morality.
As for the debate being "grey", of course. That's my point. "Piracy is theft" is black and white. And wrong.
It's basically "because you can't provide an EXACT line that separates these things there's no separation at all!"
But that's plainly not a convincing argument.
what a weird comment!
Also there's a number of material differences that justify that different treatment.
Theft removes the object from someone. Copyright infringement does not.
Theft (as tipified in my country, opposed to "hurto" or "apropiación indebida", sorry don't know how to translate those) means certain quantity, violence on persons or things.
Even if the same laws were applied to digital content, there would be impossible to convict anybody without specific laws, because taking something from someone without violence, dameges and not depriving the owner would amount as a small fine, not worth the legal costs.
There is a concept in penal law over here that's called "punibility". The idea is that certain behaviours can't be controlled using criminal law because it's impossible to keep an eye on everybody: "behaviour that's socially accepted". If you need a policeman on every citizen, that also needs to enter your home to see if you're acting bad... then it's a bad idea to criminalize. The punishment isn't uniformly applied so it's even more unjust.
The first has zero cost to the owner of the car, they keep their car and Google keep their [Google's] picture of it, plus I get my copy.
The second denies the owner their original and any possible use of that original.
The distinction is physical, not metaphysical. The clue is in the terms property and intellectual property. One of these is ethereal and almost impossible to steal [at present], can you guess which?
Because it's a lie? "Piracy" isn't theft. Abortion isn't murder. You can argue that they're wrong, but this kind of misrepresentation is the lowest possible way of discusion. In fact it's an admission that people doesn't look at copyright infringement as wrong, so it must be tagged with a stronger word.
This debate is not going away, because that's the politics of our time. So please, at least let's keep it a little more intelligent than that.